This is a Test and Only a Test……….

Whenever I’ve gone backpacking or canoe camping I’ve always used the already dehydrated meals. These are expensive and not always on the healthy side either. So back in January I purchased a small dehydrator for this sole purpose. Today I’m making my first attempt at dehydrating my own.

Today’s test meal is something I call “Sausage vegetable stew”. I put this concoction together yesterday in my crockpot and let it cook all day. Once cooled I put it into the refrigerator over night so all the flavors had a chance to meld. This morning removing the stew from the fridge I scooped it into a colander in the sink. I did this so any excess water can drain off. I then spread the stew onto my dehydration trays and now I sit and wait.

0715: The dehydration begins

1505: The Dehydration stops

I made three 6 ounce servings from this batch. Looking at one of my similar single serve pre-made meals they are 3.5 ounces. After a long day on the trail or canoeing I find that the 3.5 ounce serving doesn’t satisfy.

Combine all ingredients into crockpot except the sausage. Next fill a pot with water and bring to a boil, removing the sausage from the casings while you wait. Once the water is at a boil breakup the sausage as you put it into the water and cook for a few minutes. After sausage is cooked drain it in a colander. Next boil another pot or kettle of water and pour it over the sausage to rinse any residual fat (This is important). Once rinsed you can combine the meat into your crockpot.

I love the Gianelli sausage as it has half the fat and calories (90 calories per link) as pork sausage and it tastes amazing. This meal has a total of 1,875 calories according to all packaging. However caloric value does change during the dehydration process according to what I’ve read.

This recipe is endless with what you can do for your own personal taste. And a special thank you to my buddy Gary who claims he will be the guinea pig.

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4 thoughts on “This is a Test and Only a Test……….”

Hey Joe, that looks and sounds really good! When I hiked the Long Trail back in 1965 dehydrated foods were horrid, at least the ones I got were! The only one that was palatable was this chicken a la king mixture. At one camp site a hiker had left a can of Dinty Moore beef stew…best meal I ever had! It was requested that hikers leave some goodies, I did, but I’m not sure they were appreciated by other hikers! Have you tried Smugmug as a site to sell your pictures? Are mall sales going well? Take good care of your body and starting off your running.

That is a great story John and for the record I had no idea you hiked the Long Trail, pretty awesome! To be honesty I like the Dinty Moore beef stew…LOL

I use to use Smugmug years ago but not so much now. Things are changing and for the better in my opinion so I do not know what will happen. My sales are slow but that is to be expected however that multi-vendor is doing an entire reboot in April with a huge rebrand opening event.

This coming Saturday I am displaying several pieces of my work at a local brewery in conjunction with their 7th anniversary bash..

Knee is healing up good, start PT next week for a month and Dr. says I should be good to go in 4-6 weeks.